Communication networks control how information, e.g., data, is transmitted from a source (e.g., a root or source node) to a specified destination (e.g., a destination node) via various communication protocols. For example, one protocol—multiprotocol label switching (MPLS)—defines a label-switched path (LSP) from the source node through various network nodes to the destination node. The LSP may be defined based on a forwarding equivalent class (FEC) and as the data is forwarded to various nodes in the MPLS network, the label is switched.
For some network routing applications, particular routing protocols can be optimized according to various techniques. For example, for a communication network such as an optical transport network (OTN), data can be routed using LSPs optimized according to routing techniques such as shortest path first (SPF) or constrained shortest path first (CSPF). Notably, OTNs generally include a set of Optical Network Elements (ONEs) connected by optical fiber links that are able to provide functionality of transport, multiplexing, switching, management, supervision and survivability of optical channels carrying information or data packets (e.g., via optical signals). However, even these optimized routing techniques can sometimes yield multiple equal cost paths. Typically, an arbitrary tiebreaker path selection technique is used to select one of these multiple equal cost paths. However, such an arbitrary tiebreaker path selection technique can yield inefficient and poor usage of network resources, and can potentially block subsequent traffic demand requests for the selected path.